Judging from the content of my Facebook news feed, like me, everyone seems to have realized that Thanksgiving break is officially over and finals are upon us. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen a status similar to “these next two weeks are going to kill me” or “so much to do before finals” I would be a very rich woman. Not that I can’t relate. I too have a million things (approximately) to do before finals week. On the bright side, I only have one final so it should be smooth sailing after the last week of classes.
Speaking of Thanksgiving break, I hope everyone had a good few days off. I started my holiday a bit early by heading down to Boston to look at graduate schools with my friend Danielle. We had a really good time, even if we did have to wake up 5:45 am and battle rush hour traffic to make it to my first appointment on time. I met with admissions counselors at Suffolk, Boston University, and Harvard, as well as took the campus tour at Suffolk. It was really funny to be the “prospective student” and watch someone else do the job of tour guide (I work for undergraduate admissions if I haven’t mentioned that previously). In between appointments we did some shopping and enjoyed the sunshine as it was a very warm day.
Needless to say, I fell in love with all of the schools. Granted, since I’ve always had a soft spot for Boston that isn’t very hard to accomplish but still, I’ll go with it. Visiting each school made the idea of being a student there next year so much more real and I can’t wait to finish my applications, and hear back of course.
Speaking of finishing applications, my first grad school application should be in the mail by tomorrow afternoon—I’m just waiting on one final letter of recommendation. The University of Connecticut should be receiving my application in a few days and then my fate is in their hands. I’m very nervous but at least I know that I put a lot of work into the application process and if I don’t get in it wasn’t for lack of effort. But I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for an acceptance!
In other grad school related news, I took the GRE on Sunday. I know the Sunday after Thanksgiving sounds like a horrible day to take a four hour standardized test but my break was so low key and relaxing that it was the perfect choice. I spent a lot of my break avoiding all of my real homework and studying for the GRE which helped me during the test but isn’t helping me so much now. In terms of how I did, I’m definitely pleased with my scores. The test is scored between 200 and 800 and my goal was between a 500 and a 600 on each section. My actual score was a 630 on verbal and a 590 on math. So you can see why I’m happy! I still need to receive my writing scores in the mail but I’m not too worried about those. After finally taking the test after so much prep and pre-test anxiety, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Now I can concentrate on finals and finishing those pesky applications.
It also seems that in the time since the beginning of break and now the Christmas season has begun in full force. My dad and I even put up our tree while I was home for break (he insisted). I like Christmas as much as the next person but every time I hear a Christmas song or see a commercial on television all I can think about is all the gifts I still need to buy and all the wrapping I need to do. I have a few gifts already purchased but I usually wait until the last minute to finish completely. Despite all that, I have looking forward to Christmas. It will be nice to be home for a while and have a break from classes (again).
Here’s to hopping that we all make it through finals week so we can see Christmas day!
--Alesia
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